Remathilis said:
Forgive my ignorance, but...
WHAT is the difference between the basic/expert box set versions and the Rules Cyclopedia?
The two versions in question are the 1981 Moldvay edited Basic set/Cook edited Expert set, both with Erol Otus cover art and the 1991 hardbound Rules Encylclopedia edited by Aaron Allston, which was a compilation of the '83 Mentzer edited Basic and Expert sets, '84 Mentzer edited Companion Set, and '85 Mentzer edited Master set, all with Elmore cover art.
The simple difference between the two rules sets is that the Moldvay/Cook stuff detailed levels through 14, while the Mentzer/RC rules detailed levels through 36. Thus, more high-level spells, bigger monsters, rules on planar travel, mass combat, rule over dominions, quests for immortality and the other things you'd expect from a game with a focus on higher-level characters.
The Mentzer rules also added some retroactive changes such as the Paladin, Knight, Avenger, and Druid, sort of proto-prestige classes (which were available at 9th level, even though they were not introduced until the Companion Set, which detailed rules starting at 15th level), attack ranks for demi-humans (allowing them to continue to improve in combat, even though they no longer advanced in levels) and optional Weapon Mastery rules. The RC further added the optional Skills system that was introduced in the '87-'90 Gazetteers series.
Beyond the rules additions, there are some slight discrepencies between the rules sets, particularly at levels beyond 6th or so, in terms of number of Cleric spells, Cleric undead turning, thieves' abilities, M-U/Elf spells, and saving throws for all classes. This was largely due to the need to slow down the progression of characters since the max. level had been moved up to 36 from 14. Saving throws, for instance, had largely been maxed out for characters by the time they reached 14th level in the original Expert set. These had to be toned down a bit, to give the characters something to improve on. Otherwise the rulesets are practically identical (although over at Dragonfoot we constantly love to find the nitpicky little differences that are there) and the little differences can largely be glossed over.
The 14th level in the original Cook Expert set was not a hard and fast level cap, and there were suggestions for continuing beyond that point, but it was assumed that's about where most campaigns ended. Sort of like how 3e was designed under the assumption that most campaigns ended at about 20th level.
The switch to the 36th level cap in Mentzer/RC was a bit problematic for demi-humans. Under the old rules, once a Dwarf reached his cap at 12th and the elf reached his cap at 10th, most of the human characters would be at or near 14th level - i.e. while the demi-humans were of lower level, they had the same xp. [Edit: Admitedly, Halflings, with their 8th level cap, were pretty much screwed. Part of the anti-Halfling prejudice harkening back to the OD&D rules, where they had a 4th level cap.] Under the newer rules, when the demi-humans were reaching max level, the humans had 20-some more levels to go to reach their max. The demi-human attack ranks were included to offset this somewhat, but I don't think if it quite did the job. The RC had optional rules that removed level restriction on demi-humans.
Any more questions? I'll talk about this all day unless somebody stops me... Help! I've got work to do...
R.A.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
